Scott Stinson: An off night for Kawhi Leonard, but Raptors blow out Sixers in pivotal Game 5

TORONTO • A lot of NBA players would kill for Kawhi Leonard’s off nights.

In a pivotal Game 5 in which he lost his formerly outrageous shooting touch, the guy who has been dominating these playoffs for the Toronto Raptors instead had to settle for the evening’s signature play, a soaring dunk over two Sixers that sent the home side into the half with a 21-point lead. Oh, and the other signature play, a dunk on top of large human Joel Embiid that served as a fine metaphor for the evening.

With Leonard not up to his usual standards — although he still had 21 points and 13 rebounds — it fell to the rest of the Raptors to finally play like the team they had been all season, and not the one he had largely dragged along through the first four games of this series.

Finally, they played like the former, with six Raptors scoring in double-digits, including 25 from Pascal Siakam and 17 from Kyle Lowry, as they followed up that strong first half and cruised to a 125-89 win that sends them to Game 6 at the Wells Fargo Center with a 3-2 series lead.

“Really good team win,” Lowry said. “We needed that kind of win, just for our team.”

With the Sixers understandably throwing as many bodies as they could at Leonard, given his 38-point scoring average entering Game 5, his teammates were able to do just enough to keep Philadelphia on its heels. Kyle Lowry hit an open three-pointer to open the scoring, and a few possessions later Pascal Siakam drilled a three from the corner to eliminate the bad feelings that might have lingered from an awful shooting night on Sunday, when he was dealing with a bum calf. Danny Green came alive from the three-point line, too, and even Fred VanVleet, the undersized point guard who had seemed overwhelmed trying to find space among Philly’s Redwoods, coolly nailed an early three of his own and made some key hustle plays on defence. In once instance, he stripped Embiid of the ball, like a street urchin among the unsuspecting bourgeoisie, which led to a Leonard dunk in transition.

From almost the moment Leonard began playing for Toronto in the fall, it was evident that Masai Ujiri’s bet on him was one worth taking

Sixers coach Brett Brown has been saying all series that he was loath to double-team Leonard too aggressively, given the risk of open three-point looks for a Toronto team that had been elite from that range since Marc Gasol arrived in an early February trade. But through four games, the non-Kawhi Raptors had been an abysmal 24 per cent from beyond the arc, and on Tuesday night the Sixers were quite ready to risk more of that.

Instead, it was Leonard who was 0-for-4 from distance and his teammates who were 13-for-29 (45 per cent), until some late garbage time. It was a long time coming, but those open shots were the first signs since Game 1, more than a week ago, that the Toronto Raptors could still be the Toronto Raptors.

Raptors’ Kawhi Leonard loses the ball as he hits the Scotiabank Arena floor during Tuesday night’s Game 5 against the 76ers. Leonard managed just 21 points and 13 boards but, at last, got some help from his teammates in the blowout victory.(ERNEST DOROSZUK / Postmedia Network)

“They are a difficult team to guard in any circumstance,” Brown said after the game. “(When) they get it rolling here at home, it’s a difficult place to play.” The Philadelphia coach lamented the 19 turnovers that led to 31 Toronto points, some the result of quick Raptors hands, some from bizarre Sixers passes. “That is haunting,” Brown said.With Joel Embiid still ailing, and delivering his fourth sub-par game in the series, the Sixers now need to sort themselves out at home. It will not be easy. The five previous times in which the Raptors have entered a Game 5 with the series tied at 2-2, the winner of the game has gone on to win the series.

Coming into the game, the narrative of the series so far was undeniable. Leonard was playing historically well and the only reason the Raptors had not seized control was that he was not getting enough help.

From almost the moment Leonard began playing for Toronto in the fall, it was evident that Masai Ujiri’s bet on him was one worth taking. He took a few games to get his legs under him after missing all but nine games with San Antonio last season, but then started doing the kinds of things that no one in a Raptors uniform had done for a long time, if ever. He could reliably shut down the opposing team’s best scorer, and had shot-making and, more importantly, shot-creating skills that simply dwarfed those of DeMar DeRozan, the man for whom he was traded. Leonard missed a bunch of games and the Raptors were constantly experimenting with different lineups, so he never got a world-beating role, but he showed how good he was in small flashes.

Pascal Siakam of the Toronto Raptors dunksagainst Joel Embiid #21 of the Philadelphia 76ers during Game Five of the second round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena on May 7, 2019.Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images

In the playoffs, he has exploded. What’s been remarkable about his form, both against Philadelphia and earlier against Orlando, is how many ways it can be compared to historical greatness. Pick a combination of parameters involving efficient scoring, and the comparables to what Leonard has done will be among the NBA’s luminaries. He’s the fifth player in history to score 150 points with 30 rebounds and 15 assists in the first four games of a series, joining Michael Jordan, Rick Barry, Elgin Baylor, and Wilt Chamberlain. He joins only Shaquille O’Neal in the modern era as players to shoot 60 per cent from the field and score 150+ points in four games. (Note: Shaq took all of his shots within a few feet of the rim.) Leonard is averaging 32 points per game and has a true-shooting percentage (which accounts for efficiency) of 70 per cent, which is unprecedented in a single playoff run. And by Basketball Reference’s average GameScore, he’s in a group that includes only peak Jordan and LeBron James last year, when he was doing everything for a weakened Cavaliers team.

He’s been incredible, proving convincingly that he among the absolute best players in the NBA, after what was a relatively low-key regular season.

They didn’t need him to be all that on Tuesday, which for Raptors fans was the best result of all.

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